My very faded 1959 Les Paul Jr. Does everything I need it to do.
Hi Neil, yes it is original! And, yes, it is a perfect rock and roll device!
Yes, some places more so than others . For instance where my right arm makes contact with the body is a not as glossy as other parts of the body are .
It's quite confusing . When I purchased it in 1971 that's what I thought it was . Then others have said it was a 58 including a well respected vintage shop . It's old is all I know . It has no Volute , or the made in USA on the back of the headstock, it has the long tenon showing in the neck pickup cavity . It has the dotted I in the headstock, and she came with Patent Sticker T-Tops . The neck profile is huge like a baseball bat and has the fretless wonder frets . When I purchased her with dad he took care of all the business stuff with the shop owner . All the case candy and warranty card and such got tossed out in the early 80's .My gut says 68 or early 69 . The Vintage shop owner was going over her with a fine tooth comb and was popping a chubby eyeing her , which I did not expect , he never made an offer as he knew I wasn't selling her and I just took her to him for a quickie set up which he did .
The wiring harness I had replaced way back with vintage Bumble bee Paper in oil caps with 500k pots . When I was in high school in the later 70's I replaced the wiring harness along with the T-Tops as every one was tearing everything up in the ever ending quest of "modding" .The T-Tops first came out for Dimarzio Super Distortion pickups , then in the early 80's came Seymour Duncan Distortion for the bridge , along with a 59 for the neck .Those stayed on until 1992 when they were replaced by Gibson 57 Classic in the neck with the Gibson 57 Classic + in the bridge , which worked very nicely with my Fender amps until 2015 when I got my first Marshall 2555X half stack . Then at once I hated the tone of the guitar thru My 2555X's. It just felt flat and dead like the proverbial wet blanket until 2018 when I jumped on the ThroBak bandwagon and the rest is history . Credit for all of my tinkering back then goes to Guitar Player magazine of course ,as fast as I would read about what so and so did to there guitar I was ready in a flash to update mine . This was all dark ages pre internet days LOL
....and of course I am guessing those are not reissues either!
